Greater Boston Buddhist Community Census

Greater Boston Buddhist Community Census

Presented to His Holiness The Dalai Lama

For as long as space endures
and as long as sentient beings remain
May I too abide
to dispel the miseries of the world.

-Shantideva

OVERVIEW

This census is happily offered in response to a request from the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in preparation for his visit to the Kurukulla Center in October of 2012.

Abstract

The findings of this census of Buddhists in the Greater Boston area are in line with the national estimate that 0.7% percent of the US population is Buddhist. Middlesex County, one of 3 counties above the national rate, has the highest percentage at 1.35%, almost twice the national mark.

33,095 Buddhists were counted as being active or associated with the Buddhist Sanghas queried in this survey. About 18% of those counted in the survey are actively involved in Sangha activities on a weekly basis.

Of the 74 Sanghas identified, 16 did not respond or declined to participate in the census. More than half of the communities are English speaking, but there are significant Khmer, Chinese and Vietnamese speaking communities in Massachusetts.

Vipassana/Theravada traditions appear in the greatest number, followed by the Tibetan and Vietnamese traditions.

Methodology

Research was conducted by a team of nine volunteers in several stages using the following methodology:

Scope of Data Collection – A committee was formed and the scope and definition of data was determined. Data was collected by Sangha. The following data elements were determined in scope

Tradition

Type of Center

Primary Language

Active Community

Total Community

Identification of Sanghas in the greater Boston Area - primarily drawing on sources found on the world wide web, Sanghas were identified and contact information was collected for Sanghas that met in the following Counties

Massachusetts

Essex

Middlesex

Norfolk

Plymouth

Suffolk

New Hampshire

Rockingham

Stratford

Contact with Sanghas – Volunteers were then engaged at the County and Sangha level to establish contact with Sangha leaders and to collect data

Summary – Once data was collected this report was created to categorize and summarize the data in the context of a number of other regional variables

Sanghas in Greater Boston

We discovered and contacted 74 Sanghas in the Greater Boston Area. The image below depicts the towns in which Sanghas exist. There are several towns, for example Boston and Cambridge, which have multiple groups.

Massachusetts Sanghas

Town

Sangha Name

Allston

Soka Gakkai International (SGI)

Arlington

Arlington Meditation Group

Arlington

Arlington Street Zen Center and Buddha’s Belly Book group

Arlington

Drikung Meditation Center

Arlington

Jokhang Institute

Arlington

Tara Sadhana Group

Arlington

The Arlington Center/Insight Meditation Group

Belmont

Mountain Bell Sangha

Beverly

Vajra Vidya – Thrangu Rinpoche

Boston

Old Path Sangha

Boston

Universal Buddhist Congregation

Braintree

Bo De Buddhist Meditation Center

Braintree

Samantabhadra/Pho Hien Buddhist Center

Brighton

American Buddhist Shim Gum Do Association

Brockton

Bodhicitta Center for the Encouragement of Compassion in the World

Brookline

The Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston

Brookline

Diamond Way Buddhist Center: Boston

Cambridge

Bodhimarga Cambridge Sangha

Cambridge

Boston Buddhist Culture Center

Cambridge

Buddhist Community at MIT

Cambridge

Cambridge Insight Meditation Center

Cambridge

Cambridge UU Sitting Group

Cambridge

Cambridge Zen Center

Cambridge

Foundation for Active Compassion

Cambridge

Harvard Buddhist Community

Cambridge

Open Awareness Sangha

Cambridge

Sakya Institute for Buddhist Studies

Cambridge

Tergar Meditation Group

Chelmsford

Cambodian Buddhists

Concord

Jhamtse Buddhist Center – Thursday PM

Concord

Jhamtse Buddhist Center – Wednesday AM

Dedham

Dharmata Foundation

Framingham

New England Buddhist Vihara and Meditation Center

Haverhill

BuddhaheartUSA @ UUC of Haverhill

Hingham

Buddhist and Hindu Meeting Group at Old Ship Church Parish House

Hingham

Buddhist Sangha Meditation and Discussion at Old Ship Church Parish House

New Hampshire Sanghas

Data by County

As pointed out in the abstract, Middlesex County had twice the percentage of Buddhist than the national average.

The bar graph below gives a sense of how the counted populations compared across counties. If one were to presume that the counties scoring below the national 0.7% mark were not counted because a Sangha was not convenient to them, then these counties could be defined as underserved and under counted.

Census by Town

The following map displays the concentration of active Buddhists throughout the greater Boston Area. The larger the red dot, the higher the number of Buddhists in that area.

Concentration by County

This map provides a slightly different view of the concentration of active Buddhists in the Greater Boston Area. Middlesex County has the highest concentration with Norfolk and Suffolk right behind.

It’s interesting to note that the concentration of Buddhists does not coincide with the more populated areas. While the City of Boston probably has the largest population, its county, Suffolk County, does not have the highest concentration of Buddhists.

Percentage of Buddhists in Greater Boston Compared to the Nation

According to Wikipedia (Wikipedia, 2012) the percent of the US population who are Buddhists is 0.7%. Middlesex, Norfolk, and Rockingham Counties show numbers ahead of the national average

The following graph shows how each county (in blue) compares to the national 0.7% percentage (in orange)

Language

A significant majority of Buddhist Sanghas and their members’ primary language is English, but there are significant numbers of Khmer, Vietnamese, and other Asian language communities.

Tradition

This first graph shows how the major traditions in the region compare to each other

This graph shows more granular tradition data as reported by the Sanghas. For example this graph separates out various Tibetan traditions.

Here is a more granular view of the traditions as they are dispersed throughout the counties of Greater Boston.

Acknowledgements

The Kurukulla Canter is grateful to the following volunteers who made this census possible